Valley counties merge to stay on road-funding path

Friday

Oct 11, 2013 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - With voter-approved bond money drying up, the debt costs of those bonds rising and the source of future funding to build the state's infrastructure in question, there's a "transportation fiscal cliff" looming in California.

Zachary K. Johnson

STOCKTON - With voter-approved bond money drying up, the debt costs of those bonds rising and the source of future funding to build the state's infrastructure in question, there's a "transportation fiscal cliff" looming in California.

That's the warning former California Department of Transportation Director Will Kempton gave in a speech Thursday at the University Plaza Waterfront Hotel in downtown Stockton at the annual conference of the San Joaquin Valley Regional Policy Council, which brought together elected officials, transportation planners and businesses from up and down the eight-county San Joaquin Valley.

State projections show funding for needed transportation projects over the next 10 years is about $295 billion short, he said.

"The bottom line is, we need more money. ... There's nowhere near enough money to do what we need to do," said Kempton, now executive director of Transportation California, an industry-based advocacy group.

Coming together as a region - like collaborating to agree on priority projects - can help bring funding to the San Joaquin Valley, he said after he gave his speech to a group of more than 200 people. "It brings a much more potent voice."

Transportation funding, economic development and planning for sustainable growth were among the topics covered at the conference attended by the elected officials, staff members and businesspeople who would be shaping the future of the Valley. They began arriving in downtown Stockton on Wednesday afternoon, and the conference is scheduled to continue today.

From Kern in the south to San Joaquin in the north, there are differences among Valley counties, said Andrew Chesley, executive director of the San Joaquin Council of Governments, the county transportation financing authority and one of the hosts of the conference. But there are shared goals too.

For example, he said, each county has its own plan for sustainable growth, but the counties must meet regionwide standards on air pollution.

Local officials saw other benefits too.

"Anytime we can collaborate regionally, it makes us more efficient," said Les Fong, a member of the San Joaquin Regional Transit District board of directors. These types of gatherings help local agencies look up from the day-to-day work to learn how things are done elsewhere, he said.

For its part, the transit district has saved money in building a new maintenance facility by sharing blueprints with another transit agency, he said.

Thursday's conference began with a video statement from Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, played for the audience. Organizers planned to have a video link or statement from Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, today.

State Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, came in person. One place the Valley has seen investment is in the first section of the state's planned high-speed rail system between Merced and Fresno, she said.

"Many people ask, 'Why are we funding high-speed rail in the Valley? It seems like a train to nowhere,' " she said. The Valley is ready to build, and it is where it can be built where the train could reach speeds of 220 mph, making it the country's first "true" high-speed rail, she said. Critics come from elsewhere in the state, from places that also want the billions of dollars invested in Valley rail infrastructure, Galgiani said.

Together with plans to extend service from the Altamont Corridor Express - which already connects Stockton to San Jose - into Modesto, then Merced, it could do more than just connect Valley residents to Bay Area jobs, she said.

"We have high-tech and biotech businesses in the Silicon Valley and the Bay Area that would have the ability to expand and set up satellite offices in the Central Valley," Galgiani said.